


Don't Call Me That

by jesuisgrace



Category: The Maze Runner (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Post-The Death Cure, Thomas isn't okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 08:20:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27967460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jesuisgrace/pseuds/jesuisgrace
Summary: “He’s upset about her. He’s so angry. I thought he’d - I don’t know what I thought” Brenda says, plopping down beside him with a huff and a pissed off expression.“Upset about who?” Minho asks. He’s not dumb enough to ask who she’s talking about; that’s obvious enough.“Teresa!”, Brenda answers, looking at him like he’s the stupidest person alive.-Brenda talks to Minho about Thomas after the events of The Death Cure.
Kudos: 7





	Don't Call Me That

**Author's Note:**

> I can’t get the end of Death Cure and my very intense Opinions out of my head, so I had to write a little something to cope. I haven’t read the books; I’ve only seen the movies and I’m not really engaged in TMR fandom at all. 
> 
> Unbetaed; if you catch anything or you think I should add a tag feel free to let me know in a comment or message me on tumblr where I’m [eusuntgratie](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/eusuntgratie).

“He’s upset about her. He’s so angry. I thought he’d - I don’t know what I thought” Brenda says, plopping down beside him with a huff and a pissed off expression.

“Upset about who?” Minho asks. He’s not dumb enough to ask who she’s talking about; that’s obvious enough. 

“Teresa!”, Brenda answers, looking at him like he’s the stupidest person alive. 

“I mean… yeah…” Minho trails off. 

“He snapped at a kid today. Then he yelled at me and stormed off. He won’t even look at me. I mean, I know he doesn’t… it’s fine that he doesn’t… but now it's like we’re not even friends? Not really. After everything? Me and Thomas, we went through all that and now he won’t even look at me. Because we couldn’t get that damn girl back on the helicopter. You know what he said the other night at the campfire? ‘It should’ve been me’. I don’t think he knew I could hear him. He was staring off into the fire, in his own little world, and that’s all I heard him say. Like we would’ve pulled her up and left him there. God. He got up and left when I tried to talk to him. Newt would still be alive if she hadn’t - they wouldn’t have taken you, none of that. He fucking knows that. And he’s mad at me because I couldn’t save her.”

“Fuck. Brenda - it’s not. That’s not…” he trails off again, unsure of how to explain or even if he should. He needs to talk to Thomas. He knows he’s not doing well, but he’d been better the last few days. He hasn’t been watching closely enough. If he’s saying shit like that in front of Brenda it’s worse than he thought. 

“What happened today?” he asks. “With the kid?” 

“Called him Tommy and he fuckin’ lost it. It was like he just snapped. Screamed 'my fuckin name is THOMAS and don’t you DARE call me that. Nobody can call me that.' Knocked a bunch of shit over and ran out to the beach. We just let him be alone out there for a while. He scared the kid pretty bad. He’s usually good with the young ones, but I think we need to put him on something else for a bit." 

“Shit” Minho says. “You need to come get me if something like that happens again, okay?”

“What? That’s not even… it's fine, he just scared him. He just stormed out; he didn’t do anything but yell. Thomas wouldn’t… What are you talking about?”

“Brenda, you need to come get me if something like that happens, okay? Promise me.”

“What the fuck are you talking about, Minho? I’m worried about him too, okay, that’s why I’m talking to you now. You aren’t the only one that cares about him.” She looks pained and ducks her head down, like she didn’t mean to say that last part out loud. 

“Brenda…”

“What?”

“It’s not Teresa.”

“What are you talking about, Minho?”

“Teresa didn’t call him Tommy.”

“What are you talking abo- oh.” He watches her face as the pieces click together.  
“Oh. I’m so stupid. I thought he was just angry. But the only person who called him that was...”

“Newt”, Minho whispered, looking out towards the ocean. 

“Yeah. Fuck. Oh, Thomas.” 

“He blames himself. For all of them. Chuck, Newt, Teresa. Probably Winston too. But especially Newt. He- he can’t stop running scenarios in his head, trying to figure out how he could’ve gotten him back to the chopper faster. What might’ve happened if he’d let Teresa talk him into staying. Anything he could’ve done to save him. I need- fuck, I need to go find him.” 

“Minho-”

“Yeah?”

“God, he’ll never be able to look at me again. His face, when I got there. With the serum - I - I didn’t really get it then, I guess. He looked so… broken. You remember? Like there wasn’t even anything to fight for anymore. I didn’t think he’d make it out after that, but you kept saying he’d come, that he’d find a way out, that he wouldn’t give up. But, God, his face.” 

She’s crying now, tears streaming down her cheeks. And they’re both thinking of Thomas looking like he’d been split open with a dull knife, huddled over Newt, glaring at the world like it had ripped everything away from him.

“I’m gonna go find him, okay?”

“Yeah, okay.” She sniffs and wipes her face across her sleeve. “I’ll tell you if- I’ll tell you. I didn’t know. Didn’t realize.”

“I know. It’s okay. We’ll be okay, alright? We’ll keep going. We always do.”

He stands up, takes a deep breath, and squeezes her shoulder before heading off to find Thomas. 

He doesn’t want to talk, he never does. He screams and yells and cries and screams and Minho just stands there and lets him, hands out ready to catch him if he falls, knowing he barely has the strength to hold himself up when he’s like this. 

“It should’ve been me, goddammit” is the last thing he hears, a small broken cry, before he finally lets go, collapsing against his chest, shaking and crying and falling apart. 

“It’s okay. We’ll be okay.” is all he says, holding him close and letting him shatter. And he hopes that he’s right, that him and Thomas and Brenda and Fry and Aris will be enough to put each other back together.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Comments bring me immense joy; I’d love to hear what you think!
> 
> I wrote this because I hate that they had to no homo the fuck out of Thomas reading Newt’s letter by cutting to him carving Teresa’s name right after he says “you deserve to be happy”. And I’m never quite satisfied by a pretty bow ending; I don’t think Thomas would be okay, at least not for a very long time. I think he would try to take care of everyone, but that he wouldn’t be very good at taking care of himself, or accepting that he deserves to be happy.
> 
> I’m [eusuntgratie](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/eusuntgratie) on tumblr. I mostly post about Sterek (teen wolf) & Stucky (MCU) but you’re welcome to join me over there! <3


End file.
